3. What do you do when you are blue?
Are you down in the dumps (feeling sad), do you have the blues (feeling sad)? There is comfort in sadness. A childhood friend, a familiar place. A place where you can let it all out (to behave freely). It’s ok to be sad. This past year has had heaps (many) of sad occurrences for all; a sad set of affairs indeed (an unfortunate situation). Although there are many, many happy ones, we aren’t going to visit those just yet.
It is said that the saddest day of the year is in January. This year it was January 18th, next year it will be January 17th. I was curious about Blue Monday and, as it turns out, it was just part of a publicity stunt (BBC News). There is even an equation. Whether it's a blue Monday, once a year, or dark Mondays in general, feeling the blues can take its toll (have a serious effect). When it comes to mental health, I am a proponent of getting down to business (do what needs to be done), of reaching out (getting in touch) for professional help and talking about it. It’s real and we all need to take care of it. I do.
That said, I’ll describe my perspective. Sadness comes with a certain modesty, it serves as a refuge to process and feel. You could say it is more than a feeling, it’s a place, a state of mind, and a haven (a safe place). I like to write there, read, and reflect. It’s a place of softness and dim (low) light. It is also a place where kindness can move me to tears. I know I shouldn’t stay too long. It’s not really a decision. It is not always comfortable either.
Leaving sadness has many approaches. One of my father’s catchphrases includes - Everything in life is work, happiness requires work.- In certain cases and to a certain extent, I believe that it is true. The decisions we make, starting with how we view life’s slings and arrows (Hamlet uses this phrase to talk about the difficult things in life) and including the will to work towards our fulfillment count towards experiencing happiness. Others might propose working through the sadness, transforming it into art, gardening, painting, dancing. A melancholic garden might provide the sweetest strawberries and plumpest tomatoes. Talking is a classic way through. But… What is on the other side of sadness? I don’t believe happiness is the opposite of sadness. The pendulum doesn’t swing from sadness to happiness, there are feelings that knock the pendulum in other directions. Anyway, there is no pendulum. I started writing on a Monday, a dark Monday… I am wrapping this up (finishing) on a Thursday afternoon. Not happy, not sad, not angry. Contemplative and full of wonder. Wonder should be a more commonly felt and expressed feeling.
Well, there you have it, a few idioms to express sadness and other ideas and an invitation to share how you experience sadness. I’m listening. Before I go… The happiest day of this year was June 20th according to those calculations I mentioned earlier and Google. Did you feel it?
BBC News, Blue Monday, Why its a Load of Rubbish https://www.bbc.com/news/newsbeat-51173730
